Loss

It has been a week of the crumbling of icons. Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays- all represented different areas of celebrity, and all were larger than life yet not larger than death. There is always that element of surprise when a celebrity gets cancer, or appears looking haggard, fat or tired on the cover of the Enquirer. Airbrushing and surgery can only take you so far- eventually all of us march down that long corridor toward the bright light.

So I have trouble identifying with people who are beyond touched- they are truly hurt- when a celebrity dies, although I suppose it is less that the sadness is because of the end of an individual’s life, and more, really, mourning the severing of a link of identity that ties us together. Or, in other words, we are both losing a social object. using the term that my friend Bill Lublin coined (“I remember dancing to Billy Jean with my first boyfriend”) and finding a stronger, larger one (sharing in mourning the loss of a musical icon). It has less to do with the individual who has died- because, really, do we even know that individual?

Today, I logged in to twitter to find this:

MayaREGuru Please unite in a moment of silence at 2pm Eastern for Megan Porter aka @megapixel http://bit.ly/LPmYz Pls RT#twitterqueens #Megporter

I follow this girl- for a girl is what she was at 24. In her own words, she was a “Social Butterfly. Stand for something, or fall for anything. L♥ver of Tiramisu, Photography, Dirty Martinis, Art, and Rotary Phones.”  Was I that well-defined at 24? She was only a year older than my oldest daughter.

This loss is more than the demise of a social object. It is the silencing of a voice- a snarky, smart voice. She talked about her strep throat, and leprechauns,  and mullets.

megapixel I do believe the combination of Mullet and Large Pink Scrunchie could very possibly tear the fabric of space and time.

Every loss of life is a renting of the fabric of space and time, probably at least on the level of the combination of Mullet and Large Pink Scrunchie. I think the time is coming when twitter replaces the obituary and the birth notice as the chronicler of  life’s ebb and flow.

The death of @megapixel will not “trend” on twitter, but know that her loss will be felt.

Megapixel

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